In life as in journalism, death is a grim business. And the passing of a publication, any publication, is not something to make fun of, or laugh about. Still, this notice, which appears on the homepage of The Astrological Magazine, should bring a faint smile even on the faces of mourners:

“We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of The Astrological Magazine will cease with the December 2007 issue.”

9 comments

The words beyond our control made me Laugh.Astrologers suggest ways and means to ward off evil and be able to enjoy happiness.Now a magazine is on the verge of closure and the chief astrolgers cant help by giving the recipes for coming out of the calamity.some homa / poojs / sacrifice akin to what the humble far MER does.

:) I’ve been a regular reader of the magazine but given my love for it I couldn’t spot the gaffe they inadvertently made with their choice of words. It certainly takes a cynic (who is keenly intent on celebrating the cracks) to spot that, or perhaps someone with a higher IQ than me, I’ll admit! :) Even if they saw it coming, which I am sure they did, they perhaps couldn’t do anything about it. They are not going to discuss and publicize the sequence of events or issues leading to the end of the magazine, are they? They perhaps wanted to simply issue a message that would deter their readers from badgering them with questions about the sudden closure. Perhaps, in their effort to be unambiguous about the fact that they did everything they could to save the magazine and that any requests by readers to revive the magazine would be futile, they chose the words they did. Besides, you can only predict what you wish to predict about. They perhaps never looked into the astrological influences on the life of their magazine at all! :) I am quite sure they would have looked into it once the trouble started! I guess I’ve made it more than clear that I am strong believer and staunch advocate of astrology! BTW, it’s interesting to see that you’ve tagged this post with ‘superstition’, as opposed to using the term ‘astrology’. It speaks to your views on the subject! :)

Karnataka is under the grip of astrologers. Somayaji predicted on TV 9 that Yediyurappa does not have graha bala for becoming a CM and he also predicted that a south east asian woman politician of repute would be assasinated. The law of probability worked and some of his predictions proved to be correct.
B.V.Raman could not even predict his own 23 year old son Suryanaryan’s untimely death in an accident in US. He was a shattered man after that and maybe he continued his astrology because he had already built a reputation in this field. I am sorry for the end of Astrological Magazines because my late father used to supply Printing ink to the press where it was published. Of course he also used to supply it to the ramakrishna mission press, prasaranga, university press and many other places. But as they say ‘Nil Nisi Bonum’ – don’t speak ill of the dead.

There is an old story of an astrologer who came to a king and said, “You are going to die in six months”. The king was frightened out of his wits and was almost about to die out of fear. But his minister was a clever man, and this man told the king that astrologers were fools.

The king would not believe him. So the minister saw no other way to make the king see that they were fools but to invite the astrologer to the palace again. There he asked him if his calculations were correct.

The astrologer told him that there could not be a mistake, but to satisfy him he went through the whole of the calculations again and then said that they were perfectly correct.

The king’s face became livid. The minister said to the astrologer, “And when do you think you will die?”

“In twelve years,” was the reply.

The minister quickly drew his sword and separated the astrologer’s head from the body and said to the king, “Do you see this liar? He is dead this moment.”